Assassinated Swedish Prime Minister's Grave Vandalised

While the case of Olof Palme was formally closed in 2020, questions surrounding his assassination in 1986 remain. At the same time, the public remains deeply divided over his legacy.

The grave of prominent Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme at the Adolf Fredrik cemetery in Stockholm has been vandalised.

Anonymous culprits have attached tape and sprayed nail polish on the tombstone and cut down a tree right next to the grave.

The Church Council has previously applied to the Data Inspectorate for camera surveillance in the cemetery, but was refused on the grounds that only certain times of the day could be approved. The case has now been appealed to the administrative court.

“It's awful”, church council chairman Anders Jörle told national broadcaster SVT, adding that camera surveillance in the cemetery is much sought-after.

He described the act as “woeful defilement”, adding that a police report has been filed. According to him, the family are saddened by the desecration.

“A cemetery is a place of peace and quiet and respect for the deceased and their history,” Jörle said.

By his own admission, the cemetery had a “period full of such incidents”. Among others, the grave of a girl who fell victim to the terrorist attack on Drottningsgatan street in April 2017 has suffered repeated vandalism attacks.

According to Jörle, despite its central position, the cemetery has been plagued by problems other than vandalism, including drug peddling.

Olof Palme was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as the country's prime minister from 1969 to 1976 and from 1982 to 1986. Palme also led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until his assassination in 1986. Palme was known as an avowed Democratic Socialist and an avid peacemaker. At his time, he was credited for maintaining an independent non-aligned line amid the Cold War and criticising both the Soviet Union and the United States for what he perceived to be as wrongdoings, such as the crushing of the so-called Prague Spring and the Vietnam War. He also slammed the Pinochet regime in Chile and visited Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Since political violence was little-known in Sweden at the time, Olof Palme often went out without a bodyguard. He was shot in the back from point-blank range on his way home from the cinema.

After the case remained unsolved for decades, shrouded in controversy, in 2020 Swedish prosecutors proclaimed one of the witnesses, who had long ago committed suicide, to be the assassin and closed the case.